Challenge
Matrix IBS is a cloud services company that hosts many Active Directory forests and domains for customers. In order to support customers, engineers are trained to connect to specific domain controllers for those customers. Domain management sometimes employs complex means to delegate authority to roles in order to accomplish certain Active Directory tasks. By itself, Active Directory sometimes does not provide flexibility for a customized solution. Sales growth increases the size of the environment and the complexity of the training for support engineers. Support for Exchange accounts adds additional complexity. The security roles inside of Exchange are different than Active Directory making it cumbersome to delegate privileges. Sometimes this requires connecting to multiple servers and using both the Exchange Management Console as well as Active Directory to complete the task. This complexity has often caused simple support calls to be escalated to a higher tier of support. In addition, customers sometimes prefer the ability to manage their own Active Directory requests rather than opening a ticket with the Matrix Help Desk. Because of the security requirements this feature was not possible using the standard Active Directory toolset.
Solution
With the Softerra Adaxes solution, Matrix will be able to easily train its support teams to use a single web portal for all Active Directory and Exchange support requests. From the portal the support staff can complete even multifaceted requests in a single interface with only a few clicks. It will takes about 90% less time to train support staff for these requests. Engineers can also be sure that the appropriate privileges are delegated to the support tiers without any second guessing. Adaxes shows and hides action buttons and interfaces based on security groups. This prevents a technician or customer from trying to perform an action that they do not have the rights to complete. For example, a customer cannot attempt to delete an OU because the option to delete is not visible to them on the web interface. A major solution that Adaxes provides is the ability to hide selected objects in Active Directory from support staff and customers as needed. For example, if a customized solution requires that an OU be hidden from non-privileged users, this can be very difficult to do in Active Directory, and may be impossible in some cases. With Adaxes it takes just a few clicks and the OU becomes invisible and inaccessible. Adaxes also provides the ability to provide customers with a way to manage their own hosted Active Directory environments. This can be done safely and securely through the web portal. In the past, giving a customer direct access to the Active Directory management console was impossible due to security requirements. With Adaxes the customer can log into the web page and be presented with only what they are allowed to see. The customer can easily create users, mailboxes, and groups. They can also modify existing users and groups on their own, without having to open a support ticket.
Benefits
There are many tangible benefits for Matrix with the Adaxes product. First, Matrix will save many hours in training support teams on how to manage multiple complex Active Directory and Exchange environments. What used to take 2 days of training can be taught in about 2 hours with the Adaxes solution. In addition there will be a reduction in internal ticket escalations between support tiers. The Help Desk team receives the ability to make Exchange mailbox modifications without having to escalate the ticket to a higher tier. This means the customer receives a resolution faster and the higher support tiers have additional time to focus on more complex work. Matrix customers will see the largest benefit of Adaxes. Previously customers did not have the option to manage their own hosted Active Directory environments but with Adaxes they can have the ability to do everything the Matrix support teams used to do on their behalf. This will directly reduce the number of minor support tickets for issues like creating new users, modifying distribution groups, and disabling users. Customers will enjoy the benefits of instant gratification when it comes to AD and Exchange modifications. For example, a customer can create 10 new users with Exchange mailboxes in about 10 minutes through the web portal. Without Adaxes, the same customer would have to submit a support ticket, and wait until a technician created users and mailboxes on two separate systems. With Adaxes, Matrix is projecting the amount of time saved over the course of the first year to be around 250 hours. As Matrix continues to streamline the Adaxes processes the time saved will grow.
Neely Loring
President